From a distance, the gleam from the marquees, billboards and neon bulbs of the American Sign Museum can be overwhelming. It's Clark Griswold's house at Christmas, or the Las Vegas strip at night.

Yet closer examination reveals a different view. Instead of blinding light, each sign's singularity becomes clear. The paint, the architecture, the craftsmanship. Instead of the fluorescence, it's the character that shines.

"This place has different meaning for different people," says Tod Swormstedt, president and founder of the American Sign Museum. "To kids, it's an illuminated experience. To others, it's a history lesson. Older folk like me, it's a journey back into time."

The institution, entering its tenth year of operation, is Swormstedt's way of inviting the public in on the experience.

"In a sense, the museum is a microcosm of the country. The advent of light, the evolution of technology, changing perceptions in marketing and public demeanor … it's all on display here."

The museum's dynamic is half Madison Avenue, half Midwestern town. There are sprawling billboards. And neon lights advertising gas, lodging and Papa Dino's pizza. A "town square" experience with gigantic McDonald's and Howard Johnson signs, and recreated store fronts. There's even a wood-paneled Mail Pouch tobacco advertisement lifted from the side of a barn.

Each sign on display has a narrative explaining where it came from, where it lived and how it came into the museum's grasp.

Take the popular "Wagon Wheel" exhibit. The exhibit takes pains to explain that the Green Township staple Wagon Wheel opened as a saloon for weary westbound travelers in the 1859. Morgan's Raiders, the infamous Confederate cavalry that pillaged the North during the Civil War, once helmed the establishment. As the years progressed, a neon sign of – you guessed it – a wagon wheel was constructed outside the bar, quickly becoming a part of the cultural fabric of West Side.

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The Spinning Globe, a feature at Earl Sheib’s automotive collisions and repair shop from Compton, California, is one of the few pieces that's been refurbished at the American Sign Museum in Camp Washington.(Photo: The Enquirer/ Liz Dufour)

The marquee was so popular that, when the century-old establishment closed in 2008, the owners received lots of offers for the sign.

"But the couple couldn't bear the thought of the Wheel sitting in someone's basement," Swormstedt says. Instead, the couple donated it to the museum, so that everybody could enjoy it.

When telling the Wheel's story, the Swormstedt's zeal for his museum's collection is evident. It's this enthusiasm – and a midlife crisis of epic proportion – that led to the gallery's inception.

"We joke this place was Tod's response to an existential crisis," says Brad Huberman, managing director of the American Sign Museum. "But in reality, he's sharing his passion with the world."

Signs have always been a calling for the Swormstedt family. Tod's grandfather was the first editor, and later publisher, of the trade magazine Signs of the Times, which was based in Cincinnati.

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"It was his second nature," Huberman says. "Tod and his family know the business inside and out."

Opened in 2005 at Essex Studios in Walnut Hills, the American Sign Museum had no staff and little resources. "If it wasn't for a million-dollar donation from (Cincinnati-based) ST Media Group, we wouldn't have existed," Swormstedt says.

Working as a non-profit, Swormstedt's canon – half of which is bought, half donated – steadily grew to its present-day collection of over 500 pieces. As such, the museum quickly outgrew its Essex Studios confines and had to be moved to its present location, a refurbished Camp Washington factory, in 2011.

Now furnished with a reception center and merchandise shop, as well as housing Neonworks of Cincinnati (which gives the museum's patrons a look at how neon works) the American Sign Museum has established itself as a leading voice in the craft.

The craft is an essential piece of America n history, says Swormstedt. In fact, it's an essential piece of capitalism.

"The majority of signs in the museum had a sole purpose: advertising," Swormstedt remarks. "Yet look what they have evolved to. Our culture now values signs not just as marketing tools, but as part of the aesthetic in cityscape."

To Swormstedt, the museum illustrates the power of entrepreneurship and visual splendor joining forces.

Swormstedt points to "Satellite Shopland."

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One of the feature artifacts on display at the American Sign Museum in Camp Washington is a gigantic McDonald’s sign.(Photo: The Enquirer/ Liz Dufour)

Coming from a shopping center in Anaheim, California, the strip mall's proprietor wanted to tap into the "space race" phenomena that captured the nation's attention in the 1960s. No sign company would agree to make a giant satellite to adorn the owner's building so the owner built this satellite marker himself, and the sign quickly became an Anaheim institution.

When eminent domain forced the mall to move location in 1999, the strip mall kept the "Satellite Shopland" name. But there was, alas, no room for the sign.

"Southern California is, in my mind, the center of pop culture," Swormstedt says. "This sign was immensely popular in the area, outshining the mall itself. When we found out it was on sale, we purchased the satellite and craned it down ourselves."

While the museum is celebrating its tenth anniversary, Swormstedt is not focusing on the past. He's been an instrumental part in the CoSign project, which educates artists and business owners on the merits of business signage.

"Signs aren't just ways of grabbing attention. They are extensions of your brand."

Swormstedt and the museum, along with the Haile Foundation, also help construct and install these newly engineered signs. When the projects are done, the group annually holds a roll-out event on Black Friday, with owners of the new signs riding down the street to a grand unveiling of their new banner. Past festivities have been held in the Northside neighborhood and in Covington.

Swormstedt has also been active in helping establish curriculum for the sign industry, describing the proper etiquette, practices and designs to make signs endure as fixtures of the community.